Messing with drones with out any cash., Trouble with drones and no weapons. Options

[Frag-o Delux]

My current character rarley carries a gun and when he does it is a Narcoject gun, not very good against drones. I was just talking to my GM and he stated that since the groups rigger has decided to start collecting combat drones he will be addign mor opposition rigger to the games. Generally this would not bother me. I just started thinking what are some good and cheap ways of taking out drones.

One option I thought of, was froma game we recently played were I was on a second floor balcony looking down as a roto-drone come creeping in. I just hought what would the damage be if say I dropped a ball of rope/net down on it, or say I took a long metal rod, say re-bar and dropped intot he blades? I have no idea how this would be settled.

What about creating a Physical Barries spell next to the drone in the path of the blades?

Say I have said length of re-bar and a Vectored-Thrust UAV is hovering over head. What would the damage be if I jammed the rod throught exhuast into the turbines? I was thinking of that the other day watching "mythbusters" when they were shooting chickens into an airplane. If a bird can take down a jumbo-jet, could a piece of re-bar jammed in it stop it?

How easy is it to trip an anthroform, what would the damage be of it falling down a flight of stairs?

Can anyone else think of ceap and easy ways to destroy drones? I would like to keep magic means out of this a much as possible, because well, it has been discussed to death already.

[ShadowPhoenix]

Building Firehoses would work pretty good, ramming one with a car would work, Crowbars might be fairly effective, at least to get to the sparky goodies inside, smoke and other sensor blocking things would probably be ideal, then you can create a battle plan against a type of drone.

[Darkest Angel]

Since you mention magic, levitate is quite useful since no ground based drone makes a very good UAV, and depending on how much fine control the GM will give you, you can always dump them upside down if sufficient altitude for dropping them is a problem. Also, the Confusion and Accident spirit powers can make short work of even the most powerful MBTs, let alone drones.

If you're mundane of course, I think net guns are about you're only option, at the very least you're going to force a crash test and inhibit turret movement, but the modifiers it should add to that crash test - especially if the drone is running on it's own pilot should be enough in many cases to completely disable it.

[Fahr]

Don't forget power lines... if you can get access to a power socket, you can send some happy volts into any drone with a peice of wire... the higher the voltage/amperage the better!

just be careful not to Zot yourself at the same time!

-Mike R.

[Kagetenshi]

There are very few reliable cheap and easy ways to take down drones. Also, you would NOT (NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT) want to be holding onto a piece of rebar while it goes into a turbine.

~J

[Zazen]

[Frag-o Delux]

I know that, they were shooting at a Piper Cherrokee, but the fact is airports spend millions of dollars every year to make sure there are no birds in flight paths. They use everything from plastic owls and scarecrows, guys on trucks driving around to scare them away, and including hawks and handlers trained to hunt other birds in the area. A flock of geese has been credit for taking down a jumbo jet in the past. Birds do and can knock planes out of the sky.

I know also that you do not want to hold on to the bar when jammed into the turbine. I was thinking more of a javelin toss.

[Kagetenshi]

There's a decent chance it'd screw up the turbine something fierce. There's also a nonzero chance that it'd do very little, though. If it was effective, you wouldn't want to be in the area; bits of turbine would probably be spraying around at high velocities.

Firehoses can work well against lighter drones. One good trick is to string a firehose down a stairwell and then turn it on when pursuers get near, but that's not so much of an anti-drone trick.

~J

[ThatSzechuan]

The power line idea is a good one, if you can pull it off. Keep in mind that electricity can cause serious damage to a rigger if he's jumped into the targeted drone. I'm afraid I can't recall if this applies in Captain's Chair as well, though.

[Rev]

rant
One thing that irritates me about vector thrust drones is that gm's typically do not seem to consider that those nozzels are JET ENGINES. Such drones are not just benignly floating around they are blowing out thousand degree air at hundreds of miles an hour. Anything within 10 feet below the drone should immediately burst into flame, the thing should be incredibly loud, standing directly underneath one should be rapidly fatal.
/rant

[Kagetenshi]

That's very true. Mmm, T-Birds...

~J

[Herald of Verjig...]

A vector thrust design could be made that uses directed airflow without the jet engine inferno. The output (acceleration, load) would be significantly less than the jet variety, but it would have the benefit of not burning the carpet.

[Zazen]

[Rev]

Yeah, maybe you are right. I have never heard of a vector thrust today that works without geting most of its thrust from direct jet blast, but 60 years in the future.... Still there needs to be a very hot exhaust port someplace and it should be incredibly loud.

[Darkest Angel]

Actually, no. A ducted fan arrangement could easily be used in a vectored thrust drone, such a layout would be both very quiet and would not necessarily have hot exhausts since an electric motors could easily be used.

Also, the small jet engines found in model aircraft today aren't actually that loud, and really aren't that dangerous to stand behind so long as you're a couple of feet away. They don't get nearly as hot as 'full sized' engines, and sure as hell wont have afterburners, so you wouldn't have flames shooting out the back either. On the whole, unless you're getting proper buzzed by one, I wouldn't bother with any real damaging side effects aside from descriptive.

[Herald of Verjig...]

EFC vector thrust vehicles would not have as severe of heat problems. Any time you push that much air around, it will make noise.

[Frag-o Delux]

[Fahr]

another option for VTA would be halon, or some other gass in large enough quantities will starve any combustion of air enough to put it out, so a fire extinguisher might work if it was rated for chemical, anything that can stop the combustion. or the airflow, enclose it in a tight room with no airflow and it will either run out of O2 or cook itself.

molitav cocktails are another good weapon against targets in the open, so are well disguised pits for walkers, and Steel cables for flying drones...

just brainstorming so some of these ideas may be Bunk. ;)

-Mike R.

edit advantage would be your freindly rigger might be able to resurrect them for your side if you can keep them intact but disabled.

This post has been edited by Fahr: Mar 10 2004, 08:25 PM

[Kagetenshi]

You throw a cat into a drone and I will hunt you down.

~J

[Frag-o Delux]

[Darkest Angel]

[Xirces]

[Mutie]

Best way to mess with drones , your rigger. It's his fault the gm's adding more drones ;) let him handle the drones.

Other than that You a mage ? Wreck vechicle Not a mage ? Tasers are a nice choice.

The biggest issue with killing a is drone is its armor rember if you can get thru that it dosen't take much . You would be surprised how little armor is on some of these things. A Body 2 rotor drone with no armor can pretty much be disabled with a baseball bat.

[Shockwave_IIc]

[Kagetenshi]

Mutie's got a point. If you really want to help out, get a RCD and a few drones and slap on a 'trode rig if you don't have a datajack (though that costs).

~J